Episode 025 - A Conversation with Tina Margaris

For many people, they spent an entire career doing something that they loved, and then when it came time to retire, they weren't ready to just settle down. They had a lot of energy left and they wanted to do something with that energy. Well, our guest today did exactly that. Her name is Tina Margaris. She is from Ontario, and we have a great episode about her journey into entrepreneurship. Welcome to the Content Amplification Podcast, where you will gain insight into real-life tactical and strategic elements to help you scale and grow your business. Now let's get started with today's episode. Welcome to this episode of the Content Amplification Podcast. I'm your host, Shaun Whynacht, and I'm joined with Tina Margaris. And you are in Ontario, correct?

Yes, rural Ontario, on a farm.

How's that going?

Well, you know what, we're used to it. We're used to it. Winter is winter. We actually live in a snowbelt close to a ski area, so we're used to lots of snow. We've got the machines to push the snow, and the horses are all blanketed up, so we're good.

Excellent, excellent. Doing the true Canadian winter.

Absolutely. Is there any other way?

That's right. That's right. There— I don't think there is. I don't think there is. Unless, of course, we all want to take Uber. True, true. But then you gotta deal with some of the rain too. So the reason that I wanted to have you on the show, you know, I've been following your social media for, you know, a couple of years now, and I'm seeing a lot of content that you're putting out. And we're going to talk about that in a little bit. But first off, what I ask guests to do is just give us a bit of a background as to who you are and then really what your journey has been in business or in your personal background. I know you gave me some inclination that, you know, athletics was a big part of your life.

Yes, absolutely. It's funny. Athletics has always been a part of my life. I was a competitive gymnast when I was young. And then somehow, some way, you know, I grew too much and that was no longer possible. And I segued into playing field hockey. So I played field hockey at the national level for a number of years and in university and that sort of thing. But I always, my whole life, had a high play factor. And so I ended up with my first degree being a Bachelor of Science in Physical Education. And I had this pipe dream that I wanted to be the first female athletic trainer for a professional team. And that was in the '80s. Okay, so I'm dating myself, but you know, gotta be honest about that. So I, what I did was, I went to school in the US, I took a master's in sports medicine. And when I graduated, really the only positions for women as far as sports went would be working at a university or college setting as a head athletic trainer. And so I kept going to school again. I studied podiatry, finished that, and I practiced podiatry privately and in Toronto and at Toronto General Hospital and taught there for 5 years. And I eventually left And it wasn't what I wanted. It wasn't what I needed in my life. And I've always thought that quality is better than quantity. So at the age of 35, I reinvented myself and transitioned and became a high school phys ed teacher and a coach of elite junior athletes. And it was my vocation, my calling. I have loved every minute of it, and I'm actually retiring this year after 25 years at the same school. And what's happening now is about 5 years ago, I thought to myself, oh my gosh, what am I going to do when I retire? Because I have too much energy and I've got to dispel it somewhere or drive my husband crazy. So I, you know, decided that I was going to jump into the entrepreneurial space. Um, I jumped into home-based business and had no idea what the network marketing industry was. All I knew was that the company I aligned myself, I loved their products, I loved their mission statement, and I loved the people that I was aligned with. And that's where it started, to be honest with you, this whole building content thing.

When, when you started that, um, did you have an idea of, of what you wanted to, to create, or even how you were going to, to market what you were doing?

No, I had no idea whatsoever. So the first thing I did was, because I didn't understand the space at all, I, I could consider myself a spammer because I was just so excited. I thought everybody else was going to be as excited as I was. So it really has been a process. I think with everything that happened, especially now in 2020 and with COVID I made the decision that I was going to actually educate myself and learn how to brand myself. And I spent a considerable amount of money, money with great mentors, finding great mentors, and really learned the art of branding. And I think that's where my good content started to come out. I mean, in fact, you know, I was able to brand myself exactly how I want myself to be in my own authentic way, how I want to help people. What my mission is, that, uh, this year in December I actually did a major pivot and I changed brands as far as companies go, but I did not have to change my own brand. And that was a sign to me that I had done the right thing as far as branding myself and the way I did my content.

Now, what would you say in that, that journey to personal branding was, was the key to success? That was, you know, when you looked at back and said, you know, this is what I was doing wrong before, you know, this is what I've learned now, this is what my personal brand really has helped me develop into. What were, I guess, some of those things that you could share with our listeners about the keys to building that personal brand?

First things first, I found some really great mentors. And so I am a firm believer that if you, you know, need to learn something, there's oftentimes just like you're paying for a university degree, you've got to pay for the right mentors. But inside that learning process, the biggest thing was learning how to niche down and not being afraid. To do that. You can't, you know, you think initially that everybody needs what you have to offer, that everybody wants what you have to offer, but really what you have to do when you're branding yourself is niche down to your own authentic self. And what I did was I looked at myself 5 years ago at what I wanted at what I needed. And that was my niche. I was a woman who had started her menopausal journey. I had significant weight gain without understanding it. I didn't know how to lose the weight anymore because I couldn't do it the way I did when I was younger. There were so many different things I had to learn about my menopausal self. And I thought, this is my niche. This is it. And I went from there.

What's really powerful about that was what you said, how, you know, you need to niche down, you know, become authentic. And, you know, in any type of marketing or messaging that you're putting out for any business is the idea to relate to that audience that you're trying to target. And when you're authentic, it's very easy to relate because that's who you are. And a lot of times you see people try to, try to build themselves or portray themselves as what they think other people want them to be like. But in this regard, you brought your real personality across and it shows in your content. You do a lot of videos where you're dancing to music. Tell me about the idea of, of how you come up with what type of content you're going to put out to, to connect with an audience.

Well, I mean, first and foremost, you're right. I'm always myself. Yes, I do a lot of those little videos where I'm dancing to music, especially with the onset of the Instagram Reels. And because that's who I am, you know, we're stuck at home working out in our basements or going for walks or whatever it is we can do. We're lucky enough here on the farm to have, you know, a little basement gym. I call it my she space. But I can be in the middle of a workout and then a good song comes on and I'm dancing. Okay, well, that's me. So I show my authentic self as far as the content goes in regards to, yes, I, you know, my niche is women in menopause, women needing or wanting to lose weight in menopause. I really stick to the facts. You know, of learning and understanding. And I think that's part of my medical background and my science background. You know what it is they need to know. Exercise isn't the same when you're over 50. You would need to balance the way you eat. You need targeted supplementation. It's all part of just educating, you know. And I think that if you bring value in education, to your content as well as a little entertainment, then people get to see all sides of you, not just the teacher side or the educator side, but the fun side or what you're like. It wouldn't really matter what you did. For me, you know, that phys ed degree was because I liked to play sports, so I like to work out. That's just me, you know, and, and that's what I have to show. I have to show the real me.

Absolutely. So, I mean, you're on Instagram. Are there any other platforms that you, you spend time and effort in putting content out on?

Absolutely. I'm on Instagram and Facebook. In fact, in Facebook, I have two, uh, large groups numbering, uh, almost 800 women, uh, one called Menopause Weight Busters, the other called, uh, Weight Loss for Women 30 and Beyond. Where I guide women along with two other amazing colleagues through the process of losing weight to keep it off, to stay lean. And those groups are huge. So I really work very hard on both platforms. And because of Instagram Reels, I recently have started on TikTok. I'm just in the middle of taking a course on TikTok. Um, because it's really easy to repurpose your content when you make it on TikTok. You can repurpose it into Instagram. I repurpose it onto my Instagram stories. I repurpose it into my Facebook stories. So it makes it so that you're not having to really, you know, juggle a number of different platforms by producing specific content in each platform.

Absolutely. Now you mentioned your— these Facebook groups that you created. Was this, uh, like a slow journey? I know a lot of people that have tried to create groups, they, you know, they really didn't go in with a strategy, um, or they, they create it and just hope that people come into it. Talk to us how that initial, uh, creation went, uh, and how you got it up to the numbers you got now.

Well, I think Really initially, you know, you have to start the group, you have to put your content in there, you have to develop some sort of introduction. I have a great welcome post, I show a number of videos, and I utilize the topics section in each group. So for instance, you know, there's testimonials and then there are different breakfast ideas, lunch ideas, inspiration, all those sorts of things. So loaded the content into the groups, but then what I do is I utilize Instagram to, uh, ferry people over into those groups, inviting them into those groups. And by doing that, I utilize the link in my bio on Instagram. So you'll often see in my content at the end of whatever I've shared, whatever story it is that day or whatever post, that I'll say, if you're interested, then you should tap the link in my bio. And by tapping the link in my bio, they'll find an invite right into the group. And so it grew organically. Believe it or not, I did not, um, have to invite people into the groups other than just stating the regular invite on my posts.

That's excellent. That's excellent. Now Anybody that's listening may be, you know, hearing like all this great content that you're putting out there. How do you turn what you're doing, um, you know, into the business side? So, you know, a lot of people will be like, okay, I can create groups and I can do all these posts, but they're really wondering, how do I sell my services or my products? Talk about that part of how you've leveraged or converted the effort into organic content that you're putting out there into making making dollars?

Well, inside the group is where, you know, and I'm just be honest business-wise, inside the group is where we do our sales. So, uh, for instance, uh, I'll do a workshop and at the end of the workshop we do the sell on our products because inside that group, although we offer all of that coaching and all the, the mentorship for free, we do offer a weight loss system. So we will always do the sell at the end of the workshop. So we do weekly workshops and they can be on any number of topics, but in the end they will always be related to the product that we have available, which is the weight loss system.

That's great. I mean, I guess using that, that's one other thing, um, inside.

And anybody can go to my Instagram profile, and if they tap on that link, then you will also see what's available as far as my favorite products or the Lean Body System, those sorts of things. You'll be able to see that as well. So And on my own personal, um, Facebook profile, not a business page but my personal profile, I do state my help statement, what I do. I help menopausal women look at themselves in the mirror and be happy again. And I utilize my Facebook cover to bring them over into the Facebook groups as well. They can tap on the COVID and it brings them a link straight into the Facebook group. So I'm always, always generating people, bringing them into my group, because once they're in the group, they will either be a customer or they will get the value from the content, get to know and like me for who I am, and eventually become a customer.

That's excellent.

I'm—

I just clicked on the link while you were talking there and using Linktree. It's a very very popular service for building those, those multiple linked pages for Instagram. What I like is your, your Facebook group, you kind of just, you know, it shakes a little bit to just bring your attention to it. And I think that little, that little intricacy there is really great for what you've done with it. Now, one thing that I want to ask you here just before we wrap up is how do you stay on top of what's new and what's trending? I know you mentioned you were getting into TikTok and there's, you know, there's a whole bunch of stuff that's always going on and new things are coming out. How do you not get distracted by either going down a rabbit hole for something that's new that may not catch on or just missing something because you're looking at what you're just doing now? Do you ever have that struggle?

Absolutely. I can scroll with the best of them. You know, it's easy to do that. But what I do is everything I do is with purpose because in the end, this is business and I'm utilizing social media to do social retail. Right? So if I get on Facebook and I'm going to post something, I warm up the algorithm by going on, looking at what people are posting that day, liking, commenting for a few minutes before I do my post. I stay on another 10 minutes and that's it. And I do the same with Instagram. Both algorithms like you to warm them up before you post. So that is— it's done with a great tip.

Oh, that's excellent. So where, um, we mentioned Instagram, I'll put a link to, uh, your Instagram page in, um, the show notes as well. Um, but is there anywhere else that people can find you, um, aside from, from Facebook and Instagram?

Yeah, well, come to Facebook for sure, uh, because that's my personal page, and all you have to do is tap on the COVID if somebody was interested in coming and looking at the Menopause Weight Busters group. They are both women's groups, although I help lots of guys lose weight too. But both of those groups are women's groups. You can find me on Instagram and now, um, @TinaMargris. You can find me on TikTok. Don't judge, I'm just starting. But, uh, it is, it is very interesting. And that is the rabbit hole. TikTok. I could, I could, they're all so quick, right? Because everything is, you know, 15 or 30 seconds. Whew. You can get caught watching for an hour and think, where did that time go? People are so talented. It blows my mind when I watch these TikToks, but yeah, Facebook and Instagram are the easiest places to find me for sure.

Well, Tina, your, your, your story is completely inspirational. How you've been able to just leverage your passion and turn it into a business. But also kudos to you for, for using the technology the way that you have. Thank you so much for, for talking with us today on the show.

Oh, it was my pleasure. Thanks so much for inviting me, Shaun.

Thanks for listening to the Content Amplification Podcast. If you have questions about how you can Amplify your content strategy. Go to AmplifyMyContent.com.